The season for find active wood-boring beetles has started. From now through to late summer it will become common to find active beetles in old houses and these can be very damaging. Some species, like the house long-horn, are found in quite specific parts of the country – Surrey in this case. The death-watch beetle is more widespread and can be found anywhere. It is always associated with moisture and can be a problem to locate and eradicate. There is no known ‘quick fix’ that I am aware of. Reduction of moisture content is required.
I did a short video on the death watch beetle where you can find out more and see some examples of the beetle..:
The beetle that is widely known as ‘woodworm’ is the common furniture beetle – anobium punctatum. This is much smaller that the death watch beetle you need to first locate the source of the moisture – which could be as simple as condensation, sapwood or lack of ventilation and heating.
Update April 2025
I have added two videos with the sound of the death watch beetle.
